


Anti-biotic

by Lagerstatte



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Caretaking, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magic, Major Illness, Pneumonia, Seizures, Unconsciousness, Vomiting, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:07:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21980035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lagerstatte/pseuds/Lagerstatte
Summary: An encounter with a treant leaves Ignis dangerously ill, and the magic that usually heals becomes a double-edged sword.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 20
Kudos: 125
Collections: Fics from the Basement





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Queenoftheswarm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenoftheswarm/gifts).



> Thank you so much <3 I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> And thank you Sei for beta reading!

They fought a treant in the deep parts of the Myrlwood, and at some point near the end of the battle Noct saw the treant grab Ignis and drag him underwater.

That was more than enough incentive to kill the treant fast, hacking away at it until it finally gave up and collapsed, releasing Ignis from its grasp. Ignis crawled out onto solid ground, coughing up alarming amounts of water, and Noct felt himself go weak with relief, the panic-adrenaline still thumping through him, sickly and awful. Ignis had been underwater for a minute tops, more like thirty seconds, but the violence of the treant's tail grabbing him and whipping him under had been horrific. Ignis didn't look too hurt, though; he was moving okay, if stiffly, and breathing well enough to be hacking up mouthfuls of nasty brown water.

Noct warped over to him and touched his shoulder, pushing a bit of healing magic across. The magic resisted, his reserves near-empty, but he felt it go and Ignis' whole body ease into it, like a cat leaning into the hand petting it. It was cheesy, but healing one of his friends felt good even when it hurt, like stretching out a cramping muscle.

It presumably felt good for Ignis, too. 'Much obliged,' he said, heaving himself onto his feet and grabbing a bottle of water from the armiger to rinse out his mouth. His skin was streaked all over with mud. He probably had mud and crap from the pond in his mouth and lungs, too. Gross.

Now the danger was over, treant dead and Ignis still alive, Gladio started laughing, and Prompto joined in. Wiping hair from his eyes, Ignis was clearly trying to stay dignified, but he was red-faced, filthy, and soaked to the skin. His hair was plastered down to his scalp, getting into his eyes. It was kind of hilarious.

'Ooooh, close call, Iggy,' Prompto said. 'Strategy not as watertight as you'd like, huh?'

'If you'd like to pondificate, you're welcome to take over as strategist.'

It was a joke, but Ignis' tone was nasty even for him being embarrassed. Noct peered up at him, squinting. Was he more hurt than he was letting on? But when he touched Ignis' shoulder, Ignis grasped his hand and gently pushed it away.

'I'm fine,' he said, smoothing out his frown into the soft kind of smile that made Noct adore him. 'A shower and rest and I'll be as good as new.'

'If you say so.' Noct doubted it was true, but he was tired, and it wasn't like Ignis couldn't heal himself. Not as well as Noct could, but still good enough. 'All right, let's get back already.'

'Hold up,' Gladio said, already gone back to inspect the treant corpse. 'We ought to grab some branches first.'

Prompto groaned, probably as dramatically as he could. ‘Yeah, but do we _have_ to? It's a tree. No one can tell it's a tree with legs if we only bring back branches.'

'Tell that to the guys who'll buy it,' Gladio said, and grunted as he tore off a chunk of bark from the trunk of the thing. 'It's meant to smell nice or some shit.'

'Smells like ass,' Noct said, flopping down on a nearby rock. Damn, he ached. 'What do they even want it for?'

No one replied. Ignis hesitated before heading back into the water, lending the blunt edge of one of his polearms to the job of breaking bits off to send into the armiger. Well, it wasn't like he could ruin his clothes any more than they already were. Noct watched, and Prompto flopped down next to him.

'Phew,' he said. 'Glad that's over.'

'Yeah,' Noct said. 'Finally.’

They camped on the haven that night, even though they all wanted to get to civilisation and hot, running water. It wasn't worth it trying to find their way back in the dark and with daemons riding their asses. Not even the fishing spot was tempting when Noct was gritty and sticky and cold. All he wanted was to be clean and warm and get to sleep in a real bed. He had bits of twig and dirt in his hair. Ignis helped him wash at camp, scrubbing his hair in the bucket, but even that didn't do much.

Ignis sighed as they got into the tent still dirty. Noct buried himself in the blankets and hoped Ignis would get in beside him so he could get some pampering. A shoulder rub at the very least. He'd had a sucky day tramping around the woods and his back hurt.

It wasn't until all the pots and pans were clean and the campsite cleared away, though, that Ignis kicked out the fire and got into the tent. Noct was half asleep, lulled by the light from Prompto and Gladio's phones, but he woke up when Ignis rolled him over, sat on his thighs, and started kneading his back.

Noct groaned loudly into the pillows. Gladio snorted. 'Get a room,' he said.

'Why don't you get a room,' Noct said, then groaned again as Ignis hit a sensitive spot, right next to his spine. 'Go... sleep outside or something.'

'You'll sleep outside if you keep that up,' Gladio said, though already too distracted by his phone to get properly bitchy. Noct decided to ignore him and just enjoy the massage. He was asleep by the time Ignis finished.

They spent the next morning hightailing it out of there, then driving back to Lestallum as the nearest most civilised place. Ignis coughed a couple of times driving, and Noct frowned at him. Did he look paler than normal? Was the flush across his high cheekbones a trick of the light or was he getting sick? He better not be. Noct liked looking after Ignis in theory, but Ignis never laid back like Noct did when sick, listlessly accepting comfort food and medicines. Ignis was awful at being looked after, prickly and ungracious, and Noct only had so much energy to spend getting him to stay put and not run himself ragged.

At least he had Gladio and Prompto with him. Gladio could strong-arm Ignis in a way basically no one else could, and Prompto was better at being cheerful and could passive-aggressive Ignis into submission. When Ignis got sick all Noct wanted was curl up next to Ignis and sleep, but he couldn't even do that because Ignis would insist he was contagious.

By the time they'd arrived and booked into a hotel, though, Ignis looked better. Must've just been the light or something. Noct wasn’t subtle about getting a good look at him to double check, but Ignis humoured him up to and including Noct checking his temperature on the back of his hand, and even then Noct couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary.

They showered. Ignis got in with Noct to scrub him down properly, washing his hair and back where he couldn’t reach. He washed Noct's hands, too: holding them in his own, gentle with the cloth between Noct's fingers, over his palms, across his knuckles. He got down on his knees and sucked Noct off, red-faced and drooling down the length of Noct's cock, filthy and desperate, messy in the way he only let himself be in the shower. Noct ended up on his ass with his legs given out, Ignis still sucking, practically gagging on his cock, before he came. He tugged Ignis off and kissed him, not even caring that the others had to have heard them through the thin bathroom wall.

Then the moment passed, and he was red with embarrassment when they left the bathroom for the ultimate walk of shame. Gladio wolf whistled and Prompto whoop-whooped, holding his hand up to high-five Noct as he passed. Noct ignored him. Ignis did, too, when Prompto held out the high-five for him instead.

'Boo, you guys are no fun,' Prompto said, kicking his heels on the mattress.

'Whatever,' Gladio said. 'Just so long as they got it out their systems where I didn't have to see.'

'But hearing it? Pretty sure that counted as workplace sexual harassment,' Prompto said, and then yelped as Noct grabbed a pillow to smother him. Prompto got him in the face with a fist; Ignis said something, but what, exactly, was lost to Noct's ringing ears. By the time Noct flopped back, having successfully kicked Prompto to the floor, Ignis was ready to slip into bed beside him. Noct accepted it as his well-earned prize, and he rolled onto his front.

‘Rub my back,’ he said, and Ignis snorted a laugh.

‘Rather demanding, aren’t we?’ he said, but rubbed Noct’s back anyway.

Bad dreams woke Noct the next morning; something about daemons and fishing, but he couldn’t remember much and didn’t want to remember, anyway. Gladio and Prompto were up already, gone for their morning run. Ignis was… huh. Ignis was still asleep. He usually got up at seven on the dot, or even earlier when he needed to. And now it was — Noct squinted at his phone — 7:56. Ugh.

He could do something, but doing something was effort. And he was tired. He mashed his face into the pillow and went back to sleep.

It felt barely minutes later when Gladio and Prompto bashed their way in, really obnoxiously loud and awake for any time before noon, and woke Noct up. Ignis woke up too, bleary and startled.

‘What time is it?’ he said, swinging his legs out of bed. He coughed, stifling it in a fist as he got up.

‘Almost eight-thirty,’ Gladio said. ‘You feeling okay, Iggy?’

‘Quite all right,’ Ignis said. He cleared his throat and the roughness and cough was gone.

Noct buried his head under the covers while Ignis cooked breakfast, dozing in the warm patch Ignis had left behind. It was too loud for proper sleep, but getting to just lie there, not having to do anything, was also nice. Still, he let Ignis cajole him out of bed to eat breakfast after only a brief struggle. He sat at the table, still feeling half-asleep and wishing he were back in bed, but the food was good so at least that was something.

‘What’s the plan?’ Prompto said around a mouthful. He was way too happy to be awake, Noct decided, putting his head on the table.

‘We need to wait for the Marshall,’ Ignis said. ‘According to Monica there’s been renewed movement by Niflheim in several places, and I’m not comfortable making any significant moves before we hear his report.’

‘So we’re staying in Lestallum?’ Gladio said.

‘Well, in the area. We’ll have to venture out to do some hunts if we’re going to be paying for more than a couple more nights here.’

‘Not more hunts,’ Prompto said. ‘Not in those woods again.’

Noct pulled a face, even though no one could see it. ‘No more camping, thanks,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ Prompto said, ‘but those woods? I have splinters in places you don’t wanna know.’

‘Cute,’ Gladio said. ‘Want me to get the tweezers?’

Prompto yelped. ‘Uh, I’m good thanks.’

From the sound of it Gladio made a lunge towards Prompto, who knocked over his chair to escape. Ignis laughed, but his chuckle turned into a deep, rough cough. Even after he’d swallowed it down he was winded, breathing fast and shallow. Noct lifted his head to look and saw Ignis was flushed again, fist pressed hard to his chest.

‘Whoa, Iggy,’ Prompto said. ‘You okay there?’

‘Fine,’ Ignis said, but it was diminished by the way he had to pant for air.

Noct got up to touch his forehead, which wasn’t too hot or clammy. He gave Ignis some healing magic, packaged up in a hasty blob and pushed through his chest to his lungs, but it didn’t seem to do anything. What else was there? He tried rubbing Ignis’ shoulders to make him feel better as he caught his breath, but he wasn’t good at it like Ignis was, and he could tell Ignis was just humouring him. Noct gritted his teeth and stopped. He hated feeling useless.

‘Getting sick?’ Gladio asked. He’d also got up, and he moved to sit in the seat Noct vacated so he could peer at Ignis, eye-level. It was something Ignis clearly hated, but Noct pressed down on his shoulders, keeping him in place while Gladio touched his inner wrist to Ignis’ forehead. ‘What’re your symptoms?’

‘No symptoms,’ Ignis said, prickly, even though it was blatantly a lie. ‘I just had something caught in my throat.’

About as quick as he was when going in for the kill, Gladio got around the side of Ignis, and, bracing Ignis’ back with one hand, slapped his chest with the other, hard. Leant slightly forwards, pinned in place, Ignis survived a second slap before he started hacking again — rattling, rasping coughs like there was serious gunk in his lungs.

There was just enough time for Ignis to grab a towel from the armiger before he was retching into it. Gladio pushed him forwards more and slapped his back several more times, but more gently. Noct pulled away, feeling guilty for being useless.

When Ignis was done, finally, he closed up the towel. Gladio pulled it off him unceremoniously and opened it to inspect whatever Ignis had hacked up.

‘Would you like a urine sample, too, Doctor?’ Ignis rasped, and accepted the glass of water Prompto had gone and got for him. His voice was raw and scratchy, whole face red, but he sounded instantly better when he added: ‘Thank you, Prompto.’

‘You’re healing yourself,’ Gladio accused, as he tossed the towel onto the table. Noct winced, looking at the bloodied contents of the towel, then looking away quick. He’d heard this lecture about healing illnesses; he didn’t want to hear it again. And now Gladio had said it, it was obvious what Ignis was doing. Why hadn’t he seen it himself? Ignis was instantly better when a coughing fit that bad should have had him breathless.

‘I’m easing the symptoms,’ Ignis said. He grasped for the towel, disappearing it back into the armiger and out of sight. ‘As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.’

‘Bullshit,’ Gladio said. ‘If you were, you wouldn’t be coughing up blood, would you. You’re cutting that out and getting to the hospital ASAP.’

‘I just need to rest,’ Ignis said, aggrieved, and the way he’d given up on admitting he was sick told Noct everything he needed to know.

‘You can rest after we’ve been to the hospital,’ Gladio said. ‘Blood is a bad sign and you’re sick, not a fucking idiot, so don’t try pretend it’s not. We’re getting antibiotics and you’re quitting healing away the symptoms so you can ignore the cause.’

‘It may be viral,’ Ignis said, snitty, but he didn’t argue further. He looked… ugh. Flattened and defeated, and Noct hated seeing him like that.

‘I’ll get ready, then we can go,’ Noct said, grabbing some clothes, eager for something, anything productive to do. The sooner they knew what was wrong and got Ignis the right meds, the sooner Ignis could heal. ‘There’s a clinic down the road, right? Where all the hunters visit.’

‘Bingo,’ Gladio said. ‘All right, Iggy, hope you’re ready.’

They could all heal themselves, to some degree, but that didn’t include healing illnesses. They couldn’t destroy whatever was infecting them, but they could cure some of the symptoms, like coughing and fevers. Noct was best at healing, obviously, since it was his magic, and Gladio had had years of extensive training. Prompto had only some practice and was okay. Ignis, though, was a natural. Noct was — secretly, because Ignis didn’t need an even bigger head than he already had — proud of him, smug that something as intimate as his magic could be so easily inhabited by Ignis, used and transformed through him.

When they’d been younger, though, it’d lead to trouble. Not wanting to be sick, Ignis had used it to heal surface-level symptoms of his illnesses while letting the root cause stew inside him, unhealable, and get worse and worse without anyone realising. Twice Ignis had ended up in hospital over a dumb cold, because he hadn’t wanted coughing or runny noses to stop him studying or some bullshit.

Noct had hated it, and thrown epic sulks whenever Ignis had pulled that shit, because there wasn’t any other way to get Ignis to listen when he was being like that, at least not to Noct. He’d stopped when they’d still been young — mostly because Regis himself had sat him down and told him it was a misuse of his powers and he’d be cut off if he kept it up — but now, apparently, he was going at it again. Because being surface-level healthy for a few more days while they made it back to Lestallum was worth seriously fucking himself over, apparently.

But they were in Lestallum now, Noct reminded himself. They’d go to a doctor, cough up the cash for whatever treatment Ignis needed, and it’d be fine. Ignis had even admitted that they needed to keep a low profile and stay put. He could take all the time he needed to recover.

The clinic really was just down the road, and Noct thanked the gods they’d decided to go straight back to Lestallum and not camp out at some dumb outpost. Ignis even managed to not heal himself in the time between breakfast and going to the doctor, and he sat in the waiting room looking progressively paler and more sickly. He was coughing regularly now, hacking and gasping, and wheezed painfully for whole minutes afterwards like he couldn’t catch his breath. He sounded fucking awful, and his skin was hot and sweaty, eyes going glassy. After a while he wasn’t even responding well to the times they tried to check in on him, sounding confused and feverish. The speed at which he was getting sick made Noct nervous all over again, even though they were literally sitting in the hospital, waiting for him to be treated.

Then, finally, Ignis got admitted, and Noct stubbornly tagged along. What if Ignis fainted in the hallway or some bullshit? What if he needed help? What if the doctor was an asshole or tried to take advantage or something?

Instead, the doctor frowned when she saw Ignis. It only took a few moments before she was declaring he needed chest x-rays, just to begin with.

‘It’s almost definitely pneumonia,’ she said, talking to Ignis, even though he looked barely with it. ‘Which is a good thing. It’s very treatable, and in a healthy individual like yourself it shouldn’t be a risk, but we’ll want to catch any complications as soon as they pop up. I’ll need to take samples, too, to determine the pathogen causing it. Antibiotics won’t do any good if it’s viral.’

‘Will he have to stay in the hospital?’ Noct asked.

‘No,’ the doctor said, and Noct tried not to look too relieved. ‘At least, not beyond the initial examination and check-ups if his condition gets worse. He’ll recover better at home, given plenty of rest, fluids, and the whole course of antibiotics — assuming it is bacterial, of course.’

‘Yeah,’ Noct said. ‘Okay. Good.’

The doctor smiled at him. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Pneumonia sounds dangerous but once caught and treated, in healthy individuals, it has a very good prognosis.’

Which was when they got Ignis on a bed and wheeled him away, ready to wait in queue for the x-ray machine, and kicked Noct out at the same time.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Ignis told him, not even focusing on Noct right. He grasped Noct’s hand then was whisked away, leaving Noct standing in the corridor, with the feeling of Ignis burning up under his fingers.


	2. Chapter 2

The waiting room had filled up since they’d arrived, every chair taken. Noct stood awkwardly by the door, and now he didn’t have Ignis to focus on he had no distractions from the coughing and wheezing and soft moans of pain from the other patients. The complaints, some grumbling and some vicious, and more light-hearted chatter. Someone — he didn’t want to look — was crying softly in the corner.

They didn’t last ten minutes until they unanimously decided to wait outside. Noct had a bad feeling as soon as he left the hospital, but he always got bad feelings whenever Ignis was taken from him, so he tried to tamp it down and not be too whiny. Of course the hospital was crowded. Lots of people had gone to Insomnia for treatment, and now — now they couldn’t.

He had no idea how long it’d take for the x-rays and stuff, anyway. He should have asked. He’d given his phone number — a burner phone, since Niflheim probably knew his old one — as a contact number, but the nurse had implied Ignis would be fine and the number probably wasn’t necessary. Which meant Ignis would be calling him, but wandering aimlessly around Lestallum, waiting for a call and worrying — what if it got worse? What if there were complications? How much did x-rays and all that crap cost anyway? — made time crawl almost to a stop.

Gladio was overcompensating for Ignis’ absence, irritatingly loud and close, trying to be the cool big bro all over him and Prompto. He was nervous without Ignis at his back, Noct knew, but that didn’t stop it being annoying. Especially when there was nothing to worry about in Lestallum, except Gladio’s leather-pant swamp-ass. Prompto, thankfully, seemed to be taking Ignis’ absence better, confident in the quality of Lestallum’s healthcare.

Almost an hour later, Noct was having doubts about Lestallum’s so-called quality healthcare. Why was it taking this long? He pushed his lunch around on his plate, not hungry, and ignored Gladio’s pointed comments about weediness and protein. He wasn’t hungry, and no matter how often he checked his phone, Ignis still hadn’t messaged, let alone called.

‘Maybe we should go back,’ he said, finally. ‘In case something happened.’

‘Will they even tell us anything?’ Prompto said. ‘Not like we’re listed as his emergency contacts or anything, so confidential health-stuff is off the table.’

‘And you’re not announcing your identity even if you were,’ Gladio added, warningly.

Noct rolled his eyes. ‘Whatever. They asked for my number. Of course they’d tell us if he’s okay.’ He checked his phone again: nothing. _text me when you’re out_ , he sent Ignis. _don’t try walk back yourself idiot_

They didn’t go back, though, instead returning to the hotel to kill time there. ‘The hospital was super crowded,’ Prompto said. ‘The wait times are probably insane.’

‘Do you think he’s okay?’ Noct said, lying on the bed, frustrated by his inability to fall asleep. It was too hot. He couldn’t stop thinking about Ignis, limp and pathetic in the hospital bed.

Neither Prompto nor Gladio answered immediately. ‘Well?’ Noct said, and didn’t care how snippy he was. Ignis would have said something about it.

‘He’s Iggy, of course he’s okay,’ Prompto said, which was a bullshit answer and Noct knew they all knew it.

‘It’s been over an hour,’ Noct said. ‘They should be done. There’s no way x-rays take this long.’

Gladio grunted. ‘Fine. We’ll go in and check up on him. Maybe he’s just too loony from the drugs to get his phone.’

‘He’s getting antibiotics,’ Noct said, but he rolled over and got up off the bed, already impatient. ‘Why would they give him anything else? Not like he needed pain meds.’

‘Don’t get your panties in a twist,’ Gladio said. ‘It was just a thought.’

‘Well it’s a dumb one,’ Noct said, as they left the hotel room.

Prompto stayed out of it, walking a few steps ahead as if that’d protect him from the bickering, but he visibly faltered when they got within sight of the hospital. ‘Oh, hey,’ he said. ‘It's that guy. The chancellor.’

‘What?’ Noct said.

Prompto squinted. ‘Yeah, it’s definitely him. What's he hanging around for?’

Noct scowled down the street. There was someone leaning against the wall, between them and the hospital, and now he was paying attention he could tell it was definitely the Niflheim chancellor. There was no mistaking that stupid hair and the outfit.

‘Huh,’ Gladio said, and stepped closer to Noct as they approached. 'Nothing good, I bet.'

'Ah, just the men I wanted to see!' the chancellor said, cheerfully, as they got within range. 'Lovely day, is it not?'

'What're you doing here?' Gladio said, and didn't bother trying to hide the way he moved in front of Noct.

'Merely enjoying the scenery,' the chancellor said. ‘Aren’t you?’

‘Yeah, just that,’ Gladio said, then gestured to Noct. ‘C’mon, let’s go.’

‘You’d do better to take in the views.’ The chancellor leaned in towards Noct as he passed. ‘You do see the most interesting things.’

Noct stopped. His stomach turned over inside him. ‘What’s that mean?’

‘Why, just now, they took a man away in an ambulance. It looked like they were going to Perpetouss Keep, if I’m not _gravely_ mistaken.’

Coldness solidified in Noct’s gut, ice-sharp. He felt the world lurch for a moment, like he’d been flipped upside down. ‘They took Ignis?’

‘I’ll — I’ll go ask inside,’ Prompto said, from somewhere behind Noct.

Gladio grabbed him before he could go. ‘Nope, we’re sticking together,’ he said, before turning back to the chancellor, voice low and dangerous. ‘All right, you have our attention. Any more info you wanna give, or are you done and are just fucking us around?’

‘Such hostility! Goodness, you’re making such a scene.’

‘No? Then fuck off.’ Gladio grabbed Noct and tugged him away from the chancellor and the hospital entrance.

‘What the hell?’ Noct hissed, trying to pull free. ‘Why aren’t we going in to check ourselves?’

‘Use your brain for once, now Iggy isn’t here to use his for you. What do you think happened? If he’s telling the truth, and he has before, the fucking Niffs figured out who Ignis is and grabbed him when they had the chance. We shouldn’t have left him alone. Might be a trap in the hospital, or they’re trying to lure you to Perpetouss.’

‘Or they want him for intel and we need to get him back before—’ Noct snapped, yanking himself free of Gladio’s grip.

Gladio’s jaw clenched. ‘Right. But instead of rushing in and fucking everything up for him and us, we need a plan.’

Noct glanced at Prompto, who was watching the chancellor, still loitering where they’d found him. The chancellor caught Noct’s eye and smiled, raising a hand to wave.

‘We get Ignis back,’ Noct said. He could feel his heart pound in his chest, tight and horrible, and realised it was fear. ‘Now.’

‘Wow, fucking great plan, Your Highness. How about we go after this ambulance and get someone here — Holly, she’s dependable — to check out the hospital, figure out if Iggy did actually leave.’

‘Fine,’ Noct snapped. He could feel his whole body start to tremble, starting from deep inside his chest. His lungs. He couldn’t think straight. ‘We catch up, if it’s there, we get Iggy. If not Holly calls us and we come back. How’re we going to catch up?’

‘We’re not. Think. They had a head-start, and they’ll be watching the roads. Chocobos will let us travel off-road—’

‘No. No way. It’d take a week to get there by chocobo.’

‘It’ll take longer if we run straight into an ambush we can’t fight out way out of.’

This is exactly why the needed Ignis, Noct thought. Every second passing was a second more Ignis was spending in the hands of the Niffs, who’d do who the fuck knew what with him. He was already sick. He couldn’t defend himself.

‘Okay,’ Gladio said. ‘I got this. Noct, you warp us across the canyon. There’s a good chance an ambulance’ll take the road north of Aracheole, and we can intercept it there. It’s been, what, ninety minutes? Two hours once we’re there. They can’t have got through already even if they left right away.’

‘Right, and what if they took the other route, south?’

‘Then we trust Ignis to hang in there until we get him.’

‘Not good enough,’ Noct said.

‘Where’s the Marshall?’ Prompto sounded hesitant, as if afraid he’d be shot down. ‘Can he or some of the Glaives get to the other road to watch it at least? Stop the ambulance if they have enough people to.’

‘Good thinking,’ Gladio said, before Noct could think of why it was a dumb idea and they needed something better, something utterly failsafe, because what if it went wrong? What if they lost Ignis to the Niffs? He felt like he was going insane.

The words all got clogged in his throat, and he didn’t manage to protest as Gladio dragged him down through Lestallum, to Taelpar Crag. They stopped there in front of it, and Noct stared. Could he even warp them across? What if he couldn’t? He looked back, and saw the Niflheim chancellor had come with them, if at a distance. He was watching, and he waved when he saw Noct look.

Noct turned away, tracking the shape of the canyon. Okay. They could climb down to where the cliffs started on this side, and then from there they could skirt the edge for a bit and then, maybe, he’d be able to warp them to the other side where it got narrow. It’d take a couple of warps through the middle, which was hard with another person, especially since he’d have to go twice, but he had ethers he’d saved up. He could do it. They might have to warp again to get up to the cliff top, but he couldn’t see any other way from where they were standing.

‘Marshall?’ Gladio was on the phone. So Cor was around at least enough to pick up the phone. Noct wiped his hands on his pants and scanned the cliffsides again.

‘Can you see a good way across?’ he asked Prompto. ‘Apart from—’ he pointed out his route.

‘Think that’s the best way,’ Prompto said. He was shifting on the balls of his feet, like he wanted to take off running. ‘Can you do it? With me and Gladio?’

‘Yeah,’ Noct said. ‘Okay. I can do it.’

‘Cor’s out in Leide,’ Gladio said. ‘But he says he’s got Glaive that can camp out on the south road.’

‘Let’s just hope they don’t stop a legit emergency,’ Prompto said, with a nervous laugh. ‘Not that there’s any reason for ambulances to go that direction. What’s even out there? No one lives out there.’

‘Enough chit chat,’ Gladio said, and for once Noct agreed with him.

‘Let’s go,’ he said.

He warped Gladio first, because Gladio was most used to it and that made it easier. Gladio was most used to his magic, aside from Ignis, who was — sick, kidnapped, in fucking _Niflheim’s_ hands—

Warping with someone else took the breath from him, like being light-headed except it wasn’t just not enough blood, it was not enough _everything_. It made his stomach lurch, hands and feet go numb, all his old injuries hurt again. It made him want desperately to crawl into bed, into Ignis’ arms, anywhere comforting at all. Gladio’s presence was at once a reassurance and a dead weight, dragging his everything away, stripping his magic like the clothes and hay of a scarecrow burning up in a fire, leaving just the wooden frame behind.

Noct left Gladio on the other side of the canyon, phone already out to call Holly. He took an ether and warped back for Prompto.

Warping Prompto over happened without mistake, which Noct was dully surprised at, but even after the second ether his head was buzzing, and Gladio kept yanking on his arm for no damn reason. He yanked back, annoyed.

‘You’re going the wrong way, dumbass,’ Gladio said, and hauled Noct over, all but picking him up bodily.

‘Is he okay?’ Prompto asked.

Noct squinted at him. Just looking at moving shapes made his head hurt. ‘I’m fine,’ he said through gritted teeth, trying not to slur the words. He could feel tears well up behind his eyes and he willed them away. He wouldn’t cry. He wouldn’t fucking cry in front of his friends.

He scrubbed at his face. He wanted to lie down with a bone-deep need, but he wanted Ignis back more. ‘Let’s just go, already.’

The road wasn’t far. They got to it, and Gladio sat Noct down against a tree, head between his knees. Noct wanted to protest, but he couldn’t even feel the tree on his back, or the ground under him, and he didn’t want to open his mouth in case he threw up. His head spun and the thumping in his ears drowned out everything else. Fuck. He needed to be ready to fight with Gladio and Prompto. What if they were overwhelmed and hurt without him? What if he’d been too slow and the ambulance had already passed this bit of road? It’d be his fault. What if Ignis hadn’t been taken and was in danger in the hospital, or he’d been taken to somewhere else? What if they’d just moved him a few kilometers down the road then picked him up in an airship?

What if he never saw Ignis again?

‘There’s no one here yet,’ Gladio was saying. ‘We’re early, so take your time. Breathe. We got this.’

Gladio’s certainty was a comfort, and Noct grabbed at it. Ignis tended to be optimistic and nice when he saw Noct was upset, but Gladio never pulled punches. And Ignis was important to him, too. Out of everyone, Noct could rely on Gladio when it came to Ignis.

A crash startled Noct, and he jerked his head up. His stomach rebelled, but at least his headache was receding, and just looking didn’t make him feel like shit. Gladio and Prompto were hauling a knocked down tree onto the road — when had they even got there? Hadn’t they been just by him? Noct put his head down, breathing deep. Okay. Whatever. Good idea. This way they wouldn’t need to stop the ambulance themselves.

The time passing meant he felt better and better, more alive and less like an emptied out shell, like the really shitty kind of hangovers. It also meant he was more and more aware of how the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet, and the longer it took the more likely it was that they’d missed it.

After a while he got up, hauling himself to his feet and looking around for the others. Prompto was leaning against a tree just behind him, and he looked at Noct with a vague, blank sort of expression.

‘Oh, hey,’ he said. ‘Glad you’re back with us.’

‘Shouldn’t we be further from the road? They can see us from here.’

‘Yeah. Gladio’s lying in wait, but he said not to move you til you were done.’

‘Tch.’ Noct stretched, grimacing. ‘Then I’m done, let’s move.’

They got to where Gladio was, who barely even looked at them, and didn’t say anything.

Noct wished Ignis were with him instead of Gladio, then felt bad to think that. He didn’t need Ignis comforting him, and he appreciated Gladio. He appreciated both of them. ‘What did Holly say?’ he asked, and cleared his throat, trying to get rid of its unpleasant tightness.

Gladio let out a breath. ‘They definitely have him,’ he said, still facing away. ‘Apparently it’s a thing that the Niffs take a few patients now and then to treat at their military bases. Holly says they keep real quiet about it, because who wants to be treated by fucking Niffs? But Lestallum’s at breaking point with all the hunters and refugees, and maybe Niflheim got something on one of the hospital’s higher-ups, who knows. They let them have some, and, according to Holly, they’re actually treating them and not feeding them to the daemons, so I guess that justifies it. But Iggy? Taken specifically, because it’s been Niflheim citizens only so far. And who knows who else they got. All it’d take is one compromised doctor, some forged paperwork, and there we fucking go.’

Noct had closed his eyes by the second sentence; he didn’t bother opening them again. ‘Fuck,’ he said. Prompto made a small noise of agreement beside him.

‘Shouldn’t we say something? Let people in Lestallum know it’s happening?’

‘Well Holly sure as fuck knows now. I’ll let her decide.’ Gladio scraped a hand through his hair. ‘It’s not my place.’

They fell back into silence. Noct shifted, his legs going numb under him. The ground was half moss, half dirt, and damp enough to be soaking into his trousers.

‘What’s with that guy playing both sides, anyway?’ Prompto said. ‘The chancellor. He’s helping us even though he’s Niflheim government. Do you think he wants to jump ship if things go bad for Niflheim?’

‘When things go bad,’ Noct corrected, nastily, but he wanted this conversation to end. He didn’t want to think about anything to do with the war, because that just led him to think about Lucis, and Insomnia, and his dad. He didn’t want to think about Ignis in Niflheim’s hands.

Prompto must’ve picked up on it, because he fell silent.

The ambulance came not long after that, crawling to a halt in front of the fallen tree.

Noct was on his feet the instant he saw it, but Gladio tugged him down. ‘Hold it,’ he said. Noct gritted his teeth, but didn’t move.

The back doors of the ambulance swang open and a man jumped out, and following him, a magitek soldier. Its gun was holstered, and the man was directing it, gesturing at the fallen tree. Noct felt his heart lift, the ropes and ropes of tension wrapped around his chest ease. One soldier was nothing to take down, and magitek meant this was bound to be the ambulance with Ignis.

‘Prompto,’ Gladio said in an undertone, even though they were far enough away they would have to shout to be heard. ‘Can you take it out from here?’

‘Hell yeah I can,’ Prompto said, also a whisper. He got up into a crouch, picking out a gun from the armiger and leveling it at the magitek.

‘Wait till me and Noct are in place,’ Gladio said. ‘We want to surprise them, grab Iggy and go, not let them have the time to do anything while we’re fucking around.’

‘Where’s in place?’

‘Close as we can get before anyone notices us,’ Gladio said, and then he was off. Noct sent a backwards glance at Prompto before following.

Gladio led him around to the back of the ambulance then stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. ‘This is gonna look dumb and make fighting harder, but I don’t want to risk these being legit Lestallum doctors and us getting blacklisted from there,’ he said, and plucked out the powerplant thermal suit helmet from the armiger. ‘We need Lestallum as friendly as possible.’

‘Fine, whatever,’ Noct said, too distracted by the magitek lifting the tree, its joints groaning. They didn’t have much time until the ambulance could drive off.

It was hot and stuffy inside the helmet. ‘That means no hurting anyone if you can help it,’ Gladio added.

‘ _Fine,_ ’ Noct said, and warped right in.

The single crack of gunfire had to be Prompto, so Noct ignored it. He shoved past the doctor, who stumbled back, and then jumped into the back of the ambulance.

Ignis was strapped down onto the bed, unconscious. He was dressed in a thin hospital gown, and his face was blotchy, sweat-sheened. He had a drip attached to one wrist. Noct couldn’t read what was on the bag through the helmet, so he yanked off the straps and grabbed the bag, tucking it as best he could against Ignis’ chest.

‘Hey,’ he shouted, because he couldn’t carry Ignis by himself, and he’d realised too late that warping might have given him away even with the stupid helmet, but if it hadn’t warping again would make sure they did recognise him. Gladio appeared at the ambulance doors before Noct could decide to screw it and warp anyway; Noct couldn’t see what he was looking at with the helmet, but he only paused a split-second before getting in and grabbing Ignis.

‘Guard my back,’ he said, and Noct nodded. It didn’t take any effort — the doctor was standing in the middle of the road, hands in the air. The driver was still behind the wheel, but he had his hands up, too. The magitek was motionless in the road, half its head blown off.

Noct pointed his sword at them anyway, stepping backwards after Gladio until they reached the trees, then joined Gladio in turning tail and running.

Gladio was holding Ignis to his chest, crashing through the undergrowth. The way Ignis was limp, unconscious still, bouncing in Gladio’s arms like an inanimate thing, made Noct feel weak and awful all over again.

They got away, Prompto joining them, having sprinted to catch up. Noct left it to Gladio to decide how far to go before stopping, and just followed numbly. He didn’t want to be the one to blame if they didn’t go far enough and were caught, or went too far and the rough travel made Ignis’ condition even worse than it was. And anyway, he didn’t have to do anything this way. Gladio was already making all the decisions for them.

‘We should’ve stolen the ambulance,’ Prompto said.

‘They’re gonna be watching the roads, remember?’ Gladio said. ‘And they have airships to move quick.’

‘Oh,’ Prompto said. ‘Right.’

The haven was too predictable, so they walked back to the canyon, and Noct warped Prompto over to Lestallum so he could get chocobos from the rental and take them the long way round. He felt shitty and shaky when he warped back, and he only just managed to walk back to Gladio and Ignis in the forest before dropping to his hands and knees. He crawled to Ignis, where Gladio had laid him out on a sleeping bag, and rolled over to lie next to him.

Ignis was burning up, sweaty. His breathing was fast and shallow. Gladio was fussing with the IV bag. ‘Might’ve been anything in there,’ he said when he saw Noct looking. Gladio carefully peeled away the tape keeping the catheter in place and tugged out the catheter. He pinched the small wound between finger and thumb, healing it.

‘Is he okay?’ Noct asked, even though it wasn’t like Gladio could tell. They needed medication. Antibiotics. Somewhere for Ignis to rest that was safe. Somewhere that wasn’t secretly working with Niflheim. They’d have to wait until Prompto got back, and that’d be hours.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Gladio said, brushing Ignis’ limp hair from his forehead, but didn’t look Noct in the eye.


End file.
